Description: A sampler embroidered on linen. The centre portion of the sampler is filled with a verse 'The Mariner's Compass'. Surrounding the verse is the border of flowers, birds, animals, trees, as well as baskets or urns of flowers and trees. The name of the individual, who worked on the sampler, her age, and the date of the sampler, appear below the lower border. The name is unreadable but a portion reads, 'Agd 10 yrs 1839.' Multi-coloured embroidery thread was used. Many examples of the different embroidery stitches were also employed.
History: The name sampler usually means a sample of a young woman's knitting and sewing skills. Young ladies worked hard to match the weaving and embroidery skills that their own mother had learned, a generation earlier, from her mother. Samplers were displayed and highly esteemed. A fine sampler was a sign that a woman had graduated into 'womanhood' and was ready to marry and begin her own family. The father of the family therefore usually held a party for his daughter on her fifteenth or sixteenth birthday when she finished her sampler. By inviting the neighbourhood families, the father hoped to find his daughter a husband.